System and method for inmate notification and training in a controlled environment facility

ABSTRACT

A messaging system for relaying messages to groups of inmates located in one or more controlled-environment facilities. The system receives a message from a user and a recipient designation identifying those inmates designated for receiving the message. The system performs a content check of the message or requests administrator authorization of the message, and then packages the message in a format designated by the facility. The packaged message includes the message itself, and also recipient information and other delivery information. The message may be packaged uniquely according to facility specifications. At the facility, the received message is unpacked. Recipients are identified from the recipient designation in the message, and delivery methods are retrieved for each of the intended recipients. Delivery of the message is then carried out, at a time designated in the message, according to the retrieved delivery methods.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. Pat. Application No.16/987,226 filed on Aug. 6, 2020, which is a continuation of U.S. Pat.Application No. 15/592,944 filed on May 11, 2017, now U.S. Pat. No.10,749,827, issued Aug. 18, 2020, which are incorporated by referenceherein in their entireties.

BACKGROUND Field

This disclosure relates to disseminating information, such asnotifications and announcements to inmates of a controlled environmentfacility.

Background

Inmates of prisons or other controlled environment facilities live undervery controlled conditions, and their access to information from bothinside and outside the prison is often limited. However, many situationsarise in which prison officials desire to disseminate certaininformation to the inmates. As of currently, that information is passedalong in rather inconvenient and inaccurate ways, such as word of mouthor PA announcements.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS/FIGURES

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated herein and form a partof the specification, illustrate embodiments of the present disclosureand, together with the description, further serve to explain theprinciples of the disclosure and to enable a person skilled in thepertinent art to make and use the embodiments.

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary controlledenvironment communication system, according to embodiments of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary messaging center ofthe exemplary controlled environment communication system of FIG. 1 ,according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary site server for usein the exemplary controlled environment communication system of FIG. 1 ,according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary data table for use with the exemplarymessaging center of FIG. 2 , according to embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 5 illustrates a flowchart diagram of an exemplary method fordisseminating a notification to one or more inmates of a controlledenvironment facility.

FIG. 6 illustrates a block diagram of computer system.

The present disclosure will be described with reference to theaccompanying drawings. In the drawings, like reference numbers indicateidentical or functionally similar elements. Additionally, the left mostdigit(s) of a reference number identifies the drawing in which thereference number first appears.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following Detailed Description refers to accompanying drawings toillustrate exemplary embodiments consistent with the disclosure.References in the Detailed Description to “one exemplary embodiment,”“an exemplary embodiment,” “an example exemplary embodiment,” etc.,indicate that the exemplary embodiment described may include aparticular feature, structure, or characteristic, but every exemplaryembodiment may not necessarily include the particular feature,structure, or characteristic. Moreover, such phrases are not necessarilyreferring to the same exemplary embodiment. Further, when a particularfeature, structure, or characteristic is described in connection with anexemplary embodiment, it is within the knowledge of those skilled in therelevant art(s) to affect such feature, structure, or characteristic inconnection with other exemplary embodiments whether or not explicitlydescribed.

The exemplary embodiments described herein are provided for illustrativepurposes, and are not limiting. Other exemplary embodiments arepossible, and modifications may be made to the exemplary embodimentswithin the spirit and scope of the disclosure. Therefore, the DetailedDescription is not meant to limit the disclosure. Rather, the scope ofthe disclosure is defined only in accordance with the following claimsand their equivalents.

Embodiments may be implemented in hardware (e.g., circuits), firmware,software, or any combination thereof. Embodiments may also beimplemented as instructions stored on a machine-readable medium, whichmay be read and executed by one or more processors. A machine-readablemedium may include any mechanism for storing or transmitting informationin a form readable by a machine (e.g., a computing device). For example,a machine-readable medium may include read only memory (ROM); randomaccess memory (RAM); magnetic disk storage media; optical storage media;flash memory devices; electrical, optical, acoustical or other forms ofpropagated signals (e.g., carrier waves, infrared signals, digitalsignals, etc.), and others. Further, firmware, software, routines,instructions may be described herein as performing certain actions.However, it should be appreciated that such descriptions are merely forconvenience and that such actions in fact result from computing devices,processors, controllers, or other devices executing the firmware,software, routines, instructions, etc. Further, any of theimplementation variations may be carried out by a general purposecomputer, as described below.

For purposes of this discussion, any reference to the term “module”shall be understood to include at least one of software, firmware, andhardware (such as one or more circuit, microchip, or device, or anycombination thereof), and any combination thereof. In addition, it willbe understood that each module may include one, or more than one,component within an actual device, and each component that forms a partof the described module may function either cooperatively orindependently of any other component forming a part of the module.Conversely, multiple modules described herein may represent a singlecomponent within an actual device. Further, components within a modulemay be in a single device or distributed among multiple devices in awired or wireless manner.

The following Detailed Description of the exemplary embodiments will sofully reveal the general nature of the disclosure that others can, byapplying knowledge of those skilled in relevant art(s), readily modifyand/or customize for various applications such exemplary embodiments,without undue experimentation, without departing from the spirit andscope of the disclosure. Therefore, such modifications are intended tobe within the meaning and plurality of equivalents of the exemplaryembodiments based upon the teaching and guidance presented herein. It isto be understood that the phraseology or terminology herein is for thepurpose of description and not of limitation, such that the terminologyor phraseology of the present specification is to be interpreted bythose skilled in relevant art(s) in light of the teachings herein.

As discussed above, there are currently insufficient means ofdisseminating information to inmates within controlled facilities. Thisis partially due to the traditional communications limitations withinprison facilities. Because of substantial security concerns, inmates ofsuch facilities were traditionally limited to placing calls athighly-monitored central telephone banks in the facility, and theiraccess to the Internet was completely prohibited. However, recenttechnological advancements have allowed for inmates of secure facilitiesto be assigned wireless communication devices, such as that described inU.S. Pat. Application No. 13,946,637, entitled Multifunction WirelessDevice, the entirety of which is incorporated herein by reference.

With the advent of these new communication capabilities, controlledenvironment facilities have significant new communications linesavailable between administrators and the inmates. Thus, it is conceivedthat those devices be used as a means for facilitating better and moredirect communication with inmates for purposes of informationdissemination. Systems and methods for carrying out these objectionswill be described herein for carrying out those objectives.

Exemplary Communication System

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary controlledenvironment communication system 100, according to embodiments of thepresent disclosure. The communication system includes a centralcommunication server 150 connected to a plurality of differentcontrolled environment facilities 101. The central communication server150 performs the call and other communications data processing for thedifferent facilities, including routing and monitoring calls, Internetactivity, and video calling, etc. In an embodiment, the centralcommunication server 150 is centrally located from the multiplecontrolled environment facilities. In another embodiment, the centralcommunication server 150 is located on site at one of the controlledenvironment facilities 101. The central communication server 150 alsoincludes a messaging center 155 for processing incoming and outgoingmessages or other notifications to the inmate population.

In an embodiment, an exemplary controlled environment facility includesa site server 140 that handles internal call processing and routing. Inan alternative embodiment, the site server 140 is located remotely fromthe facility, such as within the central communication server 150. Suchprocessing primarily includes routing call data from the centralcommunication server 150 to its respective destination telephone device.A telephone bank 130 and a router 120 are in communication with the siteserver 140 for receiving call data from the site server 140. Thetelephone bank 130 serves a plurality of hardwired telephones 102. Thesephones may be VoIP, POTS, or other telephone devices capable ofcommunication with the site server 140 over a telephone or datacommunication line. Meanwhile, the router 120 includes one or moreantenna 125 for wirelessly communicating with one or more wirelesscommunication devices 104 assigned to the different inmates and/orprison personnel associated with the facility. An on-site administrativeterminal 145 is also connected to the site server to allow for anauthorized individual to send a notification or other message, and/oraccess the central communication server 150.

Multiple other controlled environment facilities 101 are connected tothe central communication server 150. Those facilities 101 may have thesame or similar configurations to the exemplary controlled environmentfacility 101A. Also connected with the central communication server 150is an administrative terminal 170, a database 157, and a network 160. Inan embodiment, the administrative terminal 170 is an on-site computerterminal, accessible by an authorized administrator, and with controlcapabilities of the central communication server 150. In an embodiment,the database 157 is a separate database located remotely from thecentral communication server 150, and stores numerous different types ofcall and administrative data relating to one or more of the controlledenvironment facilities 101. In an embodiment, the network 160 is apublic network for communicating across telephone or other communicationlines to outside parties, such as the public switched telephone network(PSTN).

In operation, a pre-registered individual attempts to access themessaging center 155 via either the on-site administrative terminal 145or the administrative terminal 170. If the individual has not yet beenregistered, the individual must undergo a registration process toregister certain identifying information of the individual along withauthentication information, such as a PIN or biometric sample associatedwith the individual. The registration information is stored in thedatabase 157 along with messaging permissions. At some point before theindividual submits a message, the individual is prompted to identifythemselves, after which an authentication of the individual occurs. Theindividual may identify themselves using a PIN or a biometricsubmission, such as a fingerprint, voice sample, facial scan, etc. Theadministrative terminal 145/170 forwards the received information to thecentral communication server 150 for authentication.

The central communication server 150 uses the received identifyinginformation to locate a user record in the database with matchingidentifying information. Once retrieved, biometric authentication isperformed by performing a statistical comparison of the receivedbiometric identification to the previously-stored biometric information.Based on the comparison, the central communication server 150authenticates the individual. After the user has been authenticated, thecentral communication server 150 returns a notification to thecorresponding terminal that the individual has been authenticated alongwith the individual’s messaging permissions based on the retrieved userrecord. Summarily, the messaging permissions identify whether theindividual is permitted to submit messages with or without approval, andfor which inmates.

After the user has been authenticated, the user submits a message via aninterface associated with the corresponding administrative terminal145/170 along with an identification of recipient inmates. In anembodiment, the recipient inmates are identified as a group, such as bylocation or status. The terminal 145/170 transmits the message andrecipient information to the central communication server 150, where itis received by the messaging center 155. The messaging center 155processes the received recipient information and transmits the receivedmessage over the various communication lines to the identifiedrecipients. Further details regarding the message processing andtransmission is described below.

Exemplary Messaging Center

FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary messaging center 200of the exemplary controlled environment communication system 100 of FIG.1 , according to embodiments of the present disclosure. The messagingcenter 200 includes message input 210, message packaging 220, messagetransmitter 230, and message authorization 240, and may represent anexemplary embodiment of the messaging center 150, illustrated in FIG. 1.

In an embodiment, the messaging center 200 receives the message from theuser at message input 210. As discussed above, the message is receivedfrom the user via one of the administrative terminals 145/170, throughthe central communication system 150. In another embodiment, the usersends the message information from a separate device, such as a personalwireless device or personal computer workstation. At the message input210 of the messaging center 200, the message is received with allnecessary information for proper delivery, including the message itselfas well as intended recipient information, such as inmate group,facility, district, etc.

The message input 210 forwards the received information to the messagepackaging 220. Message packaging 220 reviews the destination informationreceived with the message and accesses a database to review transmissionprotocols for the intended destination. For example, many facilities mayhave specific transfer protocols, message formats, etc. These protocolsare stored in the message packaging 220, or in database 157 accessed bythe message packaging 220. After the message protocols are retrieved bythe message packaging 220, message packaging formats the relevantinformation into the appropriate format dictated by the retrieved formatinformation for transmission. To provide an example, a particularfacility may provide a certain number of leading bits in the message forthe inmate designation, and may also designate how different inmategroups are to be referenced within the encoded message. Based on thethis information, message packing assigns the relevant inmate group codebased on the destination information within the message, and thenorganizes the destination information and the message information intothe final encoded message for transmission.

In an embodiment, message packaging 220 also utilizes the userinformation received in the received message to determine permissions.In other words, using the user information associated with the receivedmessage, message packaging 220 checks the database 157 to determine thepermission level associated with the user. Certain users are granteddifferent messaging permissions. In an embodiment, there are threelevels of permissions, including full, limited, and none. Fullpermissions allow for messages to be transmitted without review orauthorization, limited permissions allow for messages to be transmittedafter authorization from a registered user with full permissions to thedestination, and those with no permissions are prohibited from sendingmessages to the destination. For example, the warden of a particularfacility is granted full permissions for that facility, but limitedpermissions for all other facilities within the district, and nopermissions for other facilities in the state. Meanwhile, anadministrator with the state department of corrections may be providedfull permissions for all facilities in the state. In embodiments, thepermissions are broken down by inmate groups within facilities, or evenindividual inmates within facilities.

If the message packaging 220 determines from the user information andthe permissions data retrieved from the database that the user has nopermissions to the destination information included in the receivedmessage information, the message packaging denies transmission of themessage. If the message packaging 220 determines that the user has fullpermissions, the message packaging 220 packages the message fortransmission to the destination. If the message packaging 220 determinesthat the user has limited permissions, message packaging controlsmessage authorization 240 to contact a predesignated authorized personto authorize the message. The message authorization 240 returns a“authorized” or “not authorized”. If the message authorization 240returns “authorized”, the message packaging 220 proceeds to package andforward the message for transmission. On the other hand, if the messageauthorization 240 returns “not authorized,” message packaging declinesto send the message.

The message transmitter 230 receives the packaged message from messagepackaging 220, and then transmits the packaged message to the relevantfacility designated in the message. In an embodiment, the facility isdesignated in the packaged message by an IP address or other networkaddress.

Site Server

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary site server 300 according to anembodiment. The site server 300 includes a message receiver 310, messageparsing 320, and notification 330, and may represent an exemplaryembodiment of the site server 140 of FIG. 1 .

As discussed above, each facility may have its own message formattingrequirements. Regardless, there is more information than simply themessage, which is received by the site server 300. Namely, the receivedmessage includes the message, as well as recipient information, messagesender, etc. Additional examples of information that can be included ina received message package is delivery time, permissions, etc. All thisinformation is packaged together into the format designated by thefacility, and transmitted to the facility by the central communicationserver 140.

The packaged message is received at the site server 300 by the messagereceiver 310. The message receiver 310 forwards the received messagepackage to the message parsing 320. The message parsing utilizes thepredetermined message format associated with the facility to parse outthe different informational portions of the received message. Forexample, the message parsing 320 extracts the message, the recipientinformation, and any other portions of the message package includedtherein.

Once all relevant elemental portions of the message have been extracted,the notification 330 proceeds to carry out message delivery. Forexample, at a minimum, the notification 330 retrieves the recipientinformation and the message, and forwards the message to all of therecipients identified. In an embodiment, the recipients are identifiedindividually. In another embodiment, the recipients are identified aspart of a group, such as a particular cell block, wing, or facility.

In an embodiment, delivery methods for each inmate are stored in adatabase located within the facility 101A, such as within site server140. In this embodiment, when carrying out the deliver process, thenotification 330 accesses the database and retrieved delivery methodsfor each recipient. Such delivery methods may include SMS or MMSmessage, email, PA announcement, or digital bulletin board, amongothers. The delivery method selected for each recipient may depend onthe recipients available communication methods. For example, an inmatewith an assigned wireless communication device will have SMS or MMSdelivery methods selected, whereas an inmate without such a device willbe limited to email (if he/she has such access), or PA/bulletin.

As discussed above, the notification 330 may also adjust thenotification procedure based on the other data fields included in themessage package. For example, if the message package includes a deliverytime, the notification 330 will wait to transmit the message until thedesignated time. Other modifications are available based on other datafields in the message package.

In the manner described above, facilities are capable of receiving anddisseminating messages to designated individuals housed therein.

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary data table for use with the exemplarymessaging center of FIG. 2 , according to embodiments of the presentdisclosure. The table includes numerous information useful for thedissemination of information to inmates. The database is organizedaccording to facility, as shown in the first column 410. Each facilitycan be further broken down into smaller subsections of residents, suchas cell blocks (shown in second column 420). There may be multiple, ordifferent, subsections than that depicted, including wing, securitylevel, responsible security officer, etc. Regardless of which, or howmany, subsets are included in the database, each inmate is identified incorrespondence with his/her relevant data points, such as shown in thethird column 430. In the example shown in FIG. 4 , inmate Peter Smith isa resident of Facility 1, Cell Block 1. In an embodiment, all inmates ofthe facility that are capable of receiving notifications via thenotification system are identified in this database with theirrespective location information.

In addition to location and identification information, the databasealso includes delivery information. The delivery information shouldinclude at least a primary notification means, such as shown in thefourth column 440. In an embodiment, secondary or more notificationmeans are also included, such as shown in the fifth column 450. Thenotification means shown in the fourth and fifth columns include adestination address for the inmate, where such an address exists, and ageneral notification description where no such address exists. For theexample shown in FIG. 4 , inmate peter smith should primarily benotified via his assigned wireless device at the device address: “AWDAddress 1.” In an embodiment, the address of the assigned wirelessdevice can be in the form of IP address, device identification, MACaddress, etc. Secondarily, Peter Smith is to be notified via email atthe address: “psmith@facility1.com.” In each of these communicationmethods, an address exists and is so identified in the database.

In a second example of FIG. 4 , a second inmate of facility 1, JohnWhite, is primarily to be notified via his voice message box. For such anotification, no address is necessary because the central communicationserver 150 maintains a voice message box for each inmate through whichhe can send and receive messages with outsiders. Typically, upon nextaccessing the telecommunication system (or via other means), the inmatewill receive notification of a pending message, upon which he can loginto the system and retrieve his message. Secondarily, inmate John Whiteis to be notified via bulletin, which requires that the message beposted somewhere publicly where he is likely to see the message. In anembodiment, the system 100 includes an electronic bulletin connectedwith the central communication server, that is configured to be updatedwith new notification information from the messaging 200 for publishing.

In the above embodiment, all the described data elements are included ina single database that is accessible by, and/or managed by, the centralcommunication server 150. However, in another embodiment, it may bebeneficial to maintain the delivery information at the facility, sincethat is where that information becomes relevant. In the formerembodiment, the delivery information is packaged with the messageinformation in the transmitted message, whereas in the latterembodiment, the delivery information can be omitted from the packagedmessage and determined at the site based on the identifiedrecipients/groups. By maintaining a relational database of the inmatesand all their relevant groups, the system is able to efficiently parsemessages to all intended recipients without requiring a full list ofthose recipients. In an embodiment, the system also allows for the userto input an omission, such as a person of the identified delivery groupto which the message will not be sent.

FIG. 5 illustrates a flowchart diagram of an exemplary method forgenerating and transmitting messages to inmates. In the embodiment, thesystem receives a message and a recipient identification from the user(510). In an embodiment, the recipient is a group of inmates at one ormore facilities, which are identified by their group rather thanindividually. After the relevant information has been received, thesystem packages the message (520) together with all relevant deliveryinformation, such as group identification, omission information,delivery time, and authorization status of the sender. In an embodiment,the packaging may also include an encoding scheme unique to thedestination prison, if applicable.

Once packaged, the packaged message is transmitted to the one or morefacilities that include recipient inmates (530). If the designatedrecipient group is limited to inmates of a single facility, then themessage is transmitted only to that facility. On the other hand, if thedesignated recipient group includes inmates of multiple facilities, thenthe packaged message is sent to all of those facilities. In this latterscenario, if facility-specific encoding is required, a separate packagedmessage can be generated for each facility that has a different encodingscheme in that encoding scheme.

Once the message is received by the facility, the facility unpacks thepackaged message using its encoding scheme (540). As a result of theunpacking of the message, the different portions of the packaged messageare extracted and parsed. The facility-based delivery system analyzesthe parsed information in order to determine when, how, and to whom theextracted message is to be delivered. The facility-based system thendelivers the message in accordance with that determination (550).

As has been described above, the system for delivering messages includestwo separate messaging systems, one centralized to receive a message,and forward relevant messaging information to designated facilities, anda second that is located on-site at a facility (or off-site, but whichserves the facility) to handle final delivery responsibilities of thereceived message within the facility. However, in an embodiment, thesetwo messaging system can be combined into a single system that hascommunication privileges within the facility for carrying out finaldelivery responsibilities.

Exemplary Computer Implementation

It will be apparent to persons skilled in the relevant art(s) thatvarious elements and features of the present disclosure, as describedherein, can be implemented in hardware using analog and/or digitalcircuits, in software, through the execution of computer instructions byone or more general purpose or special-purpose processors, or as acombination of hardware and software.

The following description of a general purpose computer system isprovided for the sake of completeness. Embodiments of the presentdisclosure can be implemented in hardware, or as a combination ofsoftware and hardware. Consequently, embodiments of the disclosure maybe implemented in the environment of a computer system or otherprocessing system. For example, the method of FIG. 5 can be implementedin the environment of one or more computer systems or other processingsystems. An example of such a computer system 600 is shown in FIG. 6 .One or more of the modules depicted in the previous figures can be atleast partially implemented on one or more distinct computer systems600.

Computer system 600 includes one or more processors, such as processor604. Processor 604 can be a special purpose or a general purpose digitalsignal processor. Processor 604 is connected to a communicationinfrastructure 602 (for example, a bus or network). Various softwareimplementations are described in terms of this exemplary computersystem. After reading this description, it will become apparent to aperson skilled in the relevant art(s) how to implement the disclosureusing other computer systems and/or computer architectures.

Computer system 600 also includes a main memory 606, preferably randomaccess memory (RAM), and may also include a secondary memory 608.Secondary memory 608 may include, for example, a hard disk drive 610and/or a removable storage drive 612, representing a floppy disk drive,a magnetic tape drive, an optical disk drive, or the like. Removablestorage drive 612 reads from and/or writes to a removable storage unit616 in a well-known manner. Removable storage unit 616 represents afloppy disk, magnetic tape, optical disk, or the like, which is read byand written to by removable storage drive 612. As will be appreciated bypersons skilled in the relevant art(s), removable storage unit 616includes a computer usable storage medium having stored therein computersoftware and/or data.

In alternative implementations, secondary memory 608 may include othersimilar means for allowing computer programs or other instructions to beloaded into computer system 600. Such means may include, for example, aremovable storage unit 618 and an interface 614. Examples of such meansmay include a program cartridge and cartridge interface (such as thatfound in video game devices), a removable memory chip (such as an EPROM,or PROM) and associated socket, a thumb drive and USB port, and otherremovable storage units 618 and interfaces 614 which allow software anddata to be transferred from removable storage unit 618 to computersystem 600.

Computer system 600 may also include a communications interface 620.Communications interface 620 allows software and data to be transferredbetween computer system 600 and external devices. Examples ofcommunications interface 620 may include a modem, a network interface(such as an Ethernet card), a communications port, a PCMCIA slot andcard, etc. Software and data transferred via communications interface620 are in the form of signals which may be electronic, electromagnetic,optical, or other signals capable of being received by communicationsinterface 620. These signals are provided to communications interface620 via a communications path 622. Communications path 622 carriessignals and may be implemented using wire or cable, fiber optics, aphone line, a cellular phone link, an RF link and other communicationschannels.

As used herein, the terms “computer program medium” and “computerreadable medium” are used to generally refer to tangible storage mediasuch as removable storage units 616 and 618 or a hard disk installed inhard disk drive 610. These computer program products are means forproviding software to computer system 600.

Computer programs (also called computer control logic) are stored inmain memory 606 and/or secondary memory 608. Computer programs may alsobe received via communications interface 620. Such computer programs,when executed, enable the computer system 600 to implement the presentdisclosure as discussed herein. In particular, the computer programs,when executed, enable processor 604 to implement the processes of thepresent disclosure, such as any of the methods described herein.Accordingly, such computer programs represent controllers of thecomputer system 600. Where the disclosure is implemented using software,the software may be stored in a computer program product and loaded intocomputer system 600 using removable storage drive 612, interface 614, orcommunications interface 620.

In another embodiment, features of the disclosure are implementedprimarily in hardware using, for example, hardware components such asapplication-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and gate arrays.Implementation of a hardware state machine so as to perform thefunctions described herein will also be apparent to persons skilled inthe relevant art(s).

Conclusion

It is to be appreciated that the Detailed Description section, and notthe Abstract section, is intended to be used to interpret the claims.The Abstract section may set forth one or more, but not all exemplaryembodiments, and thus, is not intended to limit the disclosure and theappended claims in any way.

The disclosure has been described above with the aid of functionalbuilding blocks illustrating the implementation of specified functionsand relationships thereof. The boundaries of these functional buildingblocks have been arbitrarily defined herein for the convenience of thedescription. Alternate boundaries may be defined so long as thespecified functions and relationships thereof are appropriatelyperformed.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the relevant art(s) that variouschanges in form and detail can be made therein without departing fromthe spirit and scope of the disclosure. Thus, the disclosure should notbe limited by any of the above-described exemplary embodiments, butshould be defined only in accordance with the following claims and theirequivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A messaging platform of a controlled environmentfacility communication system, comprising: a database that stores inmategroupings, group locations, and message delivery methods; a transceiverconfigured to receive a message from a source, and to transmit themessage to a destination; and one or more processors configured to:receive message data from a user, the message data including the messageand a destination identifier; retrieve from the database a messagedelivery method for the message based on the destination identifier; andcause the transceiver to transmit the message to the destinationaccording to the retrieved message delivery method.
 2. The messagingplatform of claim 1, wherein the destination identifier is a locationwithin the controlled environment facility.
 3. The messaging platform ofclaim 2, wherein the retrieving includes identifying an inmate groupassociated with the location.
 4. The messaging platform of claim 3,wherein the retrieving includes identifying each of the inmatesassociated with the inmate group.
 5. The messaging platform of claim 4,wherein the retrieving includes identifying a message delivery methodassociated with each of the inmates, and wherein the transceivertransmits the message to each of the inmates according to theirrespective delivery methods.
 6. The messaging platform of claim 1,wherein the destination identifier identifies an inmate of thecontrolled environment facility.
 7. The messaging platform of claim 6,wherein the retrieving includes obtaining a delivery method associatedwith the inmate.
 8. The messaging platform of claim 1, wherein themessage delivery method includes at least one of SMS text, MMS message,email, PA announcement, and digital bulletin posting.
 9. The messagingplatform of claim 1, wherein the message data further includes a timecomponent that defines when the message is to be sent to thedestination.
 10. The messaging platform of claim 1, wherein the one ormore processors are further configured to: verify a permission level ofthe user; and transmit or deny transmission of the message based on thepermission level.
 11. A method for message delivery in a controlledenvironment facility, comprising: storing, in a database, inmategroupings, group locations, and message delivery methods; receivingmessage data from a user, the message data including the message and adestination identifier; retrieving from the database a message deliverymethod for the message based on the destination identifier; andtransmitting the message to the destination according to the retrievedmessage delivery method.
 12. The method of claim 11, wherein thedestination identifier is a location within the controlled environmentfacility.
 13. The method of claim 12, further comprising identifying aninmate group associated with the location.
 14. The method of claim 13,further comprising identifying each of the inmates associated with theinmate group.
 15. The method of claim 14, further comprising identifyinga message delivery method associated with each of the inmates; andtransmitting the message to each of the inmates according to theirrespective delivery methods.
 16. The method of claim 11, wherein thedestination identifier identifies an inmate of the controlledenvironment facility.
 17. The method of claim 16, wherein the retrievingincludes obtaining a delivery method associated with the inmate.
 18. Themethod of claim 11, wherein the message delivery method includes atleast one of SMS text, MMS message, email, PA announcement, and digitalbulleting posting.
 19. The method of claim 11, wherein the message datafurther includes a tie component that defines when the message is to besent to the destination.
 20. The method of claim 11, further comprising:verifying a permission level of the user; and transmitting or denyingtransmission of the message based on the permission level.